Teaching Children To Read

The No Teaching Method to Start Children Reading

The first step in teaching children to read is simple: You do it and they listen and watch.

Let them enjoy hearing stories read to them and seeing how the pictures relate to the story.

Ideally you would start this process long before your child starts school, but it can also help to get older children reading if they seem to be struggling or are uninterested.

Start Teaching Children to Read

Not sure how to start?

Choose a book that is appropriate for their age group. Your library, bookshop or school will help.

Just before bed or nap time is the best time. Have them sit on your lap or snuggled up beside you.

If you are feeling embarrassed about reading out loud, just try to put that aside. You don’t have to give an award winning performance with a different voice for each character, just try to vary the speed of your voice to suit the action, likewise with the volume of your voice.

If it is a picture book, stop to talk about what is happening in the pictures, what do the expressions on the characters faces mean…what do you think will happen next?

Even if there aren’t pictures, stop occasionally and talk about what is happening and ask your child if they can tell what will happen next. Ask them what they think about the characters. Who do they like best and why?

Mem Fox, children’s author, recommends three books a day. That may sound like a lot, but really, most picture books only take a few minutes each. If I’m reading a chapter book then I go by the clock. I average half an hour reading time each day.

Mem Fox says:

"Please read aloud every day, mums and dads, because you just love being with your child, not because it’s the right thing to do."

The Next Step In Teaching Children to Read

The next step is to point to words as you read. Children are naturally curious and will love matching the words on the page to the illustrations.

Keep it simple and fun:

"The cat sat in the sun. Where's the cat? Yes, there she is and doesn't she look soft?
Can you see which word is 'cat'? Well done!"

With an older child, one already at school, encourage them to read the words they know in each sentence. Help them to sound out the ones they don’t.

If they are really resistant to the idea, you may have more success if they can read at the same time you do. Read slowly out loud and they will have more confidence to say the words they know with you. When they strike a word they don’t know, they’ll hear you say it and can repeat it a second after you say it, like a little echo.

They can still enjoy the story that would otherwise be lost in the struggle to read the words and build their confidence at the same time.

Teaching Children to Read With Flash Cards

Personally, I’m not a fan of flash cards. Not for really young kids anyway.

It’s too impersonal and goal oriented.

When you are reading a story aloud to your child, or even a group of children, you have the chance for dialogue, talking about what is in the picture, what are the emotions being expressed. It’s a whole experience.

I just don’t think you get that with flash cards.

I like the idea of teaching children to read as a slow and warm process where they aren’t even aware it’s happening.

Of course, it needs to be taken to a higher level at some stage, and that happens once your kids start school.

The point is that they are primed and ready to go!

I like to think of it as teaching children to read without teaching at all.

If I could only give one piece of parenting advice it would be this:

Reading aloud is one of the most important things you can do for your child, and with your child, to give them the fullest security of your love, a head start in literacy, and a love of learning.

And it’s free.

And it’s fun!

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